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I’M LATE! I’M LATE FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE! NO TIME TO SAY HELLO, GOODBYE, I’M LATE I’M LATE I’M LATE! I know, I KNOW. Like Jack, I am rather late with this entry, and I apologize. I thought I had enough time to write about the Olympics and go to eleventy baseball games and practices for my kids.

But instead, like Jack, it turns out that I am running around like a frantic bunny with a pocket watch trying to get this entry to you. See? Because in Timeline B, Jack has become the white rabbit? Jack’s the late one, he’s the missing father? Yeah. Listen, I’m not gonna lie, this episode really moved me. I’m one of the few fans who isn’t irritated beyond words by Jack and his constant daddy issues, but believe me, I understand. All the man crying and the predictable button-pushing, it can be tiresome. Still, I think the relationship between Jack and Christian is perhaps the most important relationship in the series, and has been shaping the direction of our story all along.

And so! I was genuinely moved by the story of Jack, the Good Father. The introduction of David, and Jack’s ability to make correct choices with his son, it broke my heart with the bittersweetness of it all. Additionally, I loved that the writers chose to not change the dynamics between Jack and Christian; that Jack still has a broken relationship with his father, and that he is able to overcome it nonetheless. It parallels the fact that Locke is still paralyzed in this Timeline, but that he chooses to accept it. Timeline B Jack and Locke still live with their respective albatrosses, but because of other changes in their lives — Locke’s healthy relationship with his father, the existence of a child in Jack’s life — they are able to overcome what makes them the characters that we see in Timeline A. On Timeline A, neither Locke nor Jack have anyone off the Island to go home to. But on Timeline B, they both have family, they have a reason to be home, they have a reason to make better choices.

And as much as I love this, and am happy to see our characters happy and making the right choices, I wonder and worry that we are being set up, that this is all a long con on the writers’ part. Watching this episode, I toyed with the idea that perhaps Timeline B would be a way to give the characters a path where they could live out their lives and be happy, so that when they kill everyone off on Timeline A, we won’t storm the writer’s room with torches and pitchforks. Instead, I think, and worry, that we’re headed someplace darker, sadder. That there is a consequence to the Island being on the bottom of the ocean on Timeline B, and it’s not a good one. And that this gifted child, this bit of light in Jack’s life, this peace that Locke has found may all have to be given up again, to be sacrificed for The Greater Good.

Which would be sad. ~sigh~

Fresh from the hospital, Timeline B Jack is just cold walking around his apartment with his shirt flapping in the breeze because he’s too sexxxy for buttons, yo. Also, it gives us a chance to get a looksee at his appendectomy scar. Also, his waxing job. (And, just to clarify, the linked image is from the bathroom mirror — so the scar is on his right side, where it should be.) While Jack is busy admiring his hairlessness, his mother calls to ask if the airline has found her husband’s body yet. Nope. The coffin was last seen passing through Berlin which is nowhere near Australia or Los Angeles, so. Margo is having a panic attack with all the papers and the not being able to find the will and the whatnot, and Jack the Good Son promises to come over and help her find it. But first: hey? When did he get his appendix removed? Margo reminds him that he was about 7 or 8 years old, and that his dad wanted to do the procedure, but “they wouldn’t let him.” Jack has to hang up now, OK BAI.

Lost note: On Timeline A, Jack’s appendix is removed by Juliet on the Island. However, Jack insists upon directing Juliet through the procedure through the use of mirrors. She eventually chloroforms him, because he’s a terrible patient.

Jack is still driving that cool old Land Cruiser that I WANT, and he heads to a school where a grumpy teenager waits grumpily on the steps. Jack is REALLY sorry he’s late and David, the grumpy teenager, is like YEAH WHATEVER, DAD. GAH. Before he goes back to breathing through his mouth again.

Lost note: Yeah, so, Jack’s not a dad in Timeline A. Yes, OK, maybe he could have had a kid that he was a deadbeat dad to, but considering that in “The Watch,” Christian asks Jack to treat a kid that he might have better than he treated Jack. So, I suspect there weren’t any kids running around that Jack just chose not to acknowledge.

Lost note #2: David is the name of both Hurley’s father, and his imaginary friend that he has in Santa Rosa, visit the first. It is also the name of one of Sawyer’s marks, and Desmond’s middle name. David, of course, was the great Jewish king, the shepherd boy (ahem) turned giant-killer.

Jack and David head back to Jack’s bachelor apartment, where Jack’s slapped a few baseball pictures on the wall in a pathetic attempt to make the room palatable to a 15-year-old kid. Jack tells David that he hooked up the cable so that he can watch Red Sox games, which David essentially rolls his eyes at, and then Jack tries to engage him in a discussion of The Annotated Alice, and how David, when he was little he loved to hear all about Alice’s kittens. Things 15-year-old boys love: children’s books, kittens, awkward conversations with their fathers. David and his iPod stomp out of the room all passive-aggressively, and when Jack asks what it is that David’s listening to, David’s like, SNOTTY COMMENT HERE (mouth breath). Jack is just trying, little dude. But David doesn’t want to try. He and his dad see each other once a month, can they just get through it? GAH. Jack’s mother calls with the crazy again, and Jack has to leave, and David is not interested in coming along on account of the whole 15-year-old boy thing. OK BAI.

Lost note: Right, so, Christian’s big catch phrase is “That’s why the Red Sox will never win the World Series,” which, of course is disproved a couple months after the crash. Fate! It can be averted! Maybe!

Margo and Jack are knee-deep in papers, searching for Christian’s will, but why would Christian have made it easy on them now, har har har. Margo offers Jack a drink, and when he demurs, she’s all “GOOD FOR YOU!” which, wow, crappy family much? Margot asks how David is holding up, seeing as he was so upset at the funeral and everything, and Jack is like, for reals? See, because Jack and David, they don’t talk much? Kinda like how Jack and Christian didn’t talk? Jack takes exception to this — after all, he was terrified of his father! David couldn’t possibly be terrified of him! Margo is all, O RLY? And then she finds the will, and Claire’s name in it. HMMM…WHO COULD THAT BE?

Lost note: Jack, like his father, had a little something of a drinky-drinky problem on Timeline A. And a pill problem. And a gross beard problem. It appears that on this timeline, Jack might be in better control of those demons.

Lost note #2: MacCutcheon whisky is spied among the liquor bottles in Christian’s office. MacCutcheon, if you’ll recall, was the brand of whisky that Widmore taunts Desmond with in “Flashes Before Your Eyes.” Cooper pours Locke a glass of MacCutcheon before shoving him out an 8-story window, and Sayid is drinking MacCutcheon when Ilana meets him in a bar.

Jack returns home to an empty apartment, and NO NOTE, and after freaking out for a couple hours, he finally decides to try David’s mom’s house, even though he knows that Namesless Mom is out of town. Jack breaks into Nameless Mom’s home using the key hidden underneath a bunny statue, and finds … another empty house. Jack marches into David’s room, and starts rooting around in his things, and listening to his messages. GAH, DAD. Amongst David’s things is some sheet music for Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu with some hand-written notes, and in his messages, one confirming David’s audition time for a spot at a conservatory, and the audition is happening right! now! The next message is from Jack himself, letting David know that he is in Australia and something has … happened. And O LOOK, Jack’s crying again. There’s the McWeepy we know and love. Seems that some things remain constant through time and space.

Lost note: There are tons of rabbit references on the show, beginning with the first Jack-centric episode, “White Rabbit,” to Bunny #8 that Benry uses to torture Sawyer, to our time traveling Bunny #15, to the other bunny statue that hides a key in “Some Like it Hoth.” Bunnies!

Lost note #2: Fantaisie Impromptu is the piece of music that Young MansonLamps is playing on the piano in “The Variable.”

Jack rushes to the conservatory, where there is a big sign propped up in the lobby, welcoming “All Candidates!” Heh. Inside the auditorium, Jack finds his son on stage playing the piano beautifully, and he is stunned and O LORD, here come the waterworks again. As David takes his bow, a young Japanese boy asks Jack if David is his son, and notes that he’s really good before heading over to his father, DOGEN. O HAI, DOGEN! Dogen notes that the kids are too young for this kind of pressure, and that it is difficult to not be able to help them. Jack’s like, uh, yeah? And when Dogen notes that David has a gift, and wonders how long David’s been playing, Jack’s like, uhhh….OK BAI.

Lost note: Jack has been shown playing the piano on Timeline A. He is playing the piano the night before his wedding, and is shown playing the piano while (briefly) living in New Otherton. Interestingly, Charlie is given a piano as a gift from his mother, which his brother later sells to finance his rehab. Charlie’s piano represents his talent, his musical “gift” not unlike David’s, his family, and his sacrifice. Something to keep in mind.

Jack waits for David by the bike rack, and tells his son that he was “great.” David (mouth breath) is shocked that Jack saw him perform. And then when Jack tells him that he frightened him by up and leaving WITHOUT LEAVING A NOTE, David offers that he thought that he could get back home before Jack returned from his mother’s. Apparently, David’s been playing piano for some time, but made Nameless Mother promise not to tell Jack, as Jack used to weird David out when David would practice, what with his intensity or something. David didn’t want Jack to know about the audition, because he didn’t want his father to see him fail, and Jack’s like OMG I AM MY FATHER and starts welling up again, talking about how his father used to tell him all the time that he “didn’t have what it takes,” and boo hoo hoo, it made Jack sad his whole life. Anyway, he doesn’t want David to feel that way, Jack will always love him, no matter what happens, in Jack’s eyes David can never fail, and he just wants to be a part of his son’s life David’s like (mouth breath), sure, why not.

Yay!

Lost note: This entire storyline wherein Jack chases after his missing son is a mirror of what happens to Jack on Timeline A. There, Jack looks for his missing father in Australia, and then chases his dead father around the Island, ultimately not finding him. See? See the reversal? Yes.

Hey, you know who’s a hot mess? Claire Littleton is a HOT MESS. (Mr. T would argue that she’s just hot, but let’s leave him out of it.) Hot Mess Claire releases Jin from the bear trap, as he wonders how long she’s been out in the jungle working on her dreads. Ras Claire tells him she’s been here since they all left — 3 years. Jin attempts to walk on his own, but collapses in pain.

Lost note: Similarly, when Sayid meets Danielle for the first time, he informs her that her message on the radio tower has been playing for 16 years. She’s startled to learn that she had been on the Island that long.

Later, Jin wakes up in Camp Rousseau Littleton, and wow, Jin, your leg, gross. Claire is nowhere to be found, so Jin uses an oar as a crutch and inspects the digs. Explosives? Check. Surgical equipment? Check. Crib? Check. Hideous Furbaby made out of bones and buttons and animal hide? Ch—OH MY GAWD WHAT IS THAT HORRIBLE THING?! Claire returns to Camp Littleton with The Other Whose Name Is Not Jeremy But Justin Even Though I Keep Typing Jeremy, who pretended to be dead, but wasn’t really. Claire ties him to a post and has some questions for him regarding what he’s done with her son. In the meantime, Jin’s wound is only looking nastier, and while she may be a bit nutty, Claire still realizes that they need to clean it up, as the one thing that will kill you around here is infection. Before she leaves her hovel, Jin asks Claire if she’s been out here by herself all this time, and Claire is like, Uh, no, dummy! She heads outside and Justin, Not Jeremy tells Jin that they need to get out of Crazytown RIGHT NOW. Jin’s like, aww, it’s cool, I know her. But Justin, Not Jeremy is like, NUH UH, I know her. And listen, she’s going to kill us both if we don’t get out of here. Srsly.

Lost note: And like Danielle, Claire is desperate to find her child who she believes to have been abducted by the Others. Alex, Danielle’s daughter, had in fact, been abducted by Benry and the Others, just because.

Claire sterilizes her medical equipment while sharpening her murder axe, and Justin, Not Jeremy is like, REALLY. UNTIE ME. I’LL SNAP HER NECK! Jin rejects this offer, and Claire returns with her first aid kit and apologies to Jin that he got eated by her bear trap. She stitches him up (gross) while chattering about how the Others shot her in the leg once and she had to sew herself up which was UNCOOL. She’s had to move around quite a bit to hide from them, which is also uncool. And now that she has Justin, Not Jeremy, she is going to find out what they’ve done with Aaron. Justin, Not Jeremy is like, listen crazy, we don’t have him. Jin asks how Claire can be so sure that the Others have her baby, and she’s like, well, uh, first my dad told me, and then my friend did. So, you know. I’m pretty sure. Hey! Jin! We’re still friends, yeah? And Jin’s like, whatever you want to hear Craziness. Finished with Jin, Claire and her murder axe turn their attentions to Justin, Not Jeremy.

Hey! Justin, Not Jeremy! Why don’t you just tell Claire where her kid is, huh? Well, he can’t do that, Lady Nutty von Nutterson, because they never had your baby. So. Claire begins freaking out about how the Others took her to the Temple and tortured her. And Justin, Not Jeremy is like, well maybe you shouldn’t have been running around the jungle killing our people. She’s about to hit Justin, Not Jeremy with the murder axe when Jin tries to stop her, but she turns on Jin and starts screaming at him about the fact that the Others stuck her with needles and branded her — and she has the scar to prove it. Justin, Not Jeremy tells Claire that she’s remembering all wrong, which just makes Claire wind up her batting stance again, and Jin stops her from killing Justin, Not Jeremy that the Others! They don’t have Aaron! Kate does! Claire’s like, say what, now? And Jin explains that Kate took Aaron with her when she left the Island! He’s three now! It’s all good! Justin, Not Jeremy is like, exactly! We have nothing to do with any of this! So, how about you untying me? Claire, who is in a rather fragile place, opts to Scatman Crothers (or Jack Bauers him, take your pick) Justin, Not Jeremy instead, and plants her murder axe squarely in his chest. And having watched this about 8 times now, can I say, bravo, sound editors, for that extra bit of squishiness in there! Thanks! Also, RUN, JIN! RUUUUUNNNN!

Lost note: Dogen obviously brands Sayid after “testing” him for the sickness. Interestingly, Benry had Juliet branded after she killed Pickett.

Claire points out that if she hadn’t killed Justin, Not Jeremy, he would have killed her (maybe, probably), and she appreciates that Jin didn’t untie him. So, about this business of Kate taking Aaron, what up with that? Jin’s like, uh, yeah, about that, I was kidding? The Others TOTALLY have Aaron! He’s at the Temple and I can take you there! So let’s just leave the murder axe out of it, mmmkay? Claire thinks this is a plan, and she’s super happy that the whole Kate thing was just a big fat lie, because she’d totally murderize Kate to death with her murder axe if it were true. And then Not!Locke appears, and Jin’s like, “JOHN?!” and Claire is like, DUH, this isn’t John, it’s my friend! SMILEY FACES ALL AROUND.

At the Temple, Dogen finds Jack in the midst of a contemplative, and tells Jack that he was concerned that he had left. Jack’s like I CAN LEAVE? Dogen explains that everything is an option, but he’d have to stop Jack. Dogen then asks if Jin, Kate and Sawyer are coming back anytime soon? Yeah, not so much. Meanwhile, Miles and Hurley play a game that ends in a tie, again, before taking a break to look for something to eat. Hurley heads inside the Temple to look for noms, and asks the guy sitting by the spring if there’s a kitchen up in this joint, and WHAT? It’s Jacob! And Jacob is like O HAI HUGO! I NEEDZ U! YOU CAN HAZ PEN NAO? SOMEONE IZ COMIN TO THA ISLAND AND WE BEZ HELPIN THEM FIND IT! OK!

Mario Perez: ABC

Look at you, ABC, just giving out these amazing easter egg shots. Hey! What do you care, right? Last season! Rock out with your screencaps out!

Zombie Sayid in his Johnny Cash outfit asks Jack why the Others are staring at him, and O, I DON’T KNOW, SAYID. MAYBE BECAUSE YOU’RE A ZOMBIE? Sayid demands to know what it is that Jack is keeping from him, and Jack’s like, how about the fact that the pill that the Others wanted me to give you was MADE OF POISON? Whatever it is that happened to you, Sayid, happened to someone else! Annnnd … DRAMATIC PAUSE! (PSST! IT’S CLAIRE!)

Hurley wanders through some passageway in the Temple, looking at the hieroglyphics etched there and comparing them to the notes he has written on his arm — which is somehow more heroic and certainly less cumbersome than a teleprompter. And just as Hurley finds the inscription he is looking for, Dogen stops him, wondering what he’s up to. Hurley’s like, Uh, Indiana Jones? Dogen orders him back out into the courtyard, but that’s when Jacob materializes and is like U IZ A CANDIDATE! U DO WUT U WANTZ! NAO SEY THAT!!1! And Hurley does, and Dogen is all suspicious as to who told Hurley about that, but Hurley stands his ground. Why doesn’t Dogen go back to the courtyard? And with that bit of impertinence, Dogen curses Hurley out in Japanese and stomps off. Jacob is all WUT YOU DOIN HUGO? I SEZ BRING JACK! Hurley is like, do you have ANY IDEA how hard it is to make Jack do anything?

Hurley heads out to Jack, and secretively whispers to Jack to follow him, he’s found a secret tunnel. Or, well, more specifically, Jacob told him where a secret tunnel is. And Jacob said that Jack has to come with him through that secret tunnel. Jack’s like No, I most certainly do not. And Hurley is all, yeah, Jacob told me to tell you “you have what it takes.” And Jack has a daddy issue moment, and is like WHAT? WHERE IS JACOB? Hurley explains that Jacob’s dead and that he just sorta shows up when he wants to, all Obi-Won Kenobi-like, but if Jack wants to talk to him, that is where they’re going, so.

Lost note: When Jack was a child, he stepped in to help a friend that was being harassed by a bully. He earned himself a black eye for his efforts. His father then lectured him in The Most Important Speech in the Episode, Maybe the Series:

CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD: I had a boy on my table today. I don’t know, maybe a year younger than you. He had a bad heart. It got real hairy, real fast. And everybody’s looking at your old man to make decisions. And I was able to make those decisions because at the end of the day, after the boy died, I was able to wash my hands and come home to dinner. You know, watch a little Carol Burnett, laugh till my sides hurt. And how can I do that, hmm? And even when I fail, how do I do that, Jack? Because I have what it takes. Don’t choose, Jack, don’t decide. You don’t want to be a hero, you don’t try and save everyone because when you fail … you just don’t have what it takes.

Walking through the jungle, walking through the jungle, walking through the jungle. And it’s not long before they stumble upon Kate. O hey, Kate! DON’T SHOOT US! So, where’s everyone else? Kate explains that Jin is headed back to the Temple, and that Sawyer … is on his own. Hurley gives Kate instructions on how to get back into the Temple through the secret door, and Kate’s like, yeah, I’m going to find Claire. Jack tries to warn Kate that something is wrong with Claire according to the folks at the Temple, and tries to invite Kate to come with them, much to Hurley’s chagrin. Kate, however, is not interested. Hope you find what you’re looking for! Oh, Kate. Best of luck to you, lady. Look out for murder axes!

A Hurley and Jack return to their walk, Hurley apologizes for messing up Jack’s “game” with Kate, and wonders what ever happened between the two of them, they were supposed to get married and have a bunch of kids. Jack explains that he just wasn’t cut out for it, apparently. When Hurley assures Jack that he’d be a great dad, Jack responds that he’d be a terrible father. And OH LOOK WHERE WE ARE. Here’s Shannon’s asthma inhaler, which must mean that we are at the caves they once lived in. Sure enough, there’s Adam and Eve in all their skeletal grossness, and, wait, the survivors just … hung out with those bodies that whole time? Gross. Hurley speculates that the skeletons are “us” from time traveling something or other. But Jack’s not interested, fixated on his father’s busted-up coffin, which they also apparently didn’t move in the, what 40-something days they lived in these caves? What? Well, it gives Jack the chance to tell the story of how he found the caves: chasing his dad’s ghost. When the ghost led Jack here, he found the coffin and smashed it to pieces, because Christian wasn’t in it. Also, rage issues.

Walking through the jungle, walking through the jungle, walking through the jungle, a meta moment where Hurley talks about walking through the jungle. Hurley wonders why Jack came back to the Island, and explains that for him, it was because Jacob hopped into the back of his cab, told him he was supposed to, so he did. Jack explains that he returned because he was broken, and stupid enough to think that the Island could fix him. WHY DON’T YOU HAVE A MANCRY ABOUT IT, JACK. And hey, look, we’re here! At some giant lighthouse! Which would have been more alarming had the episode not been entitled “Lighthouse,” so. You know. Jack’s like, is there some reason we haven’t seen this before and Hurley’s like well, the writers hadn’t thought of it until now we hadn’t been looking for it.

Jack’s like, so Jacob is in here, right? And Hurley’s all, yeah, maybe? But we have to turn this thing on first. They have trouble opening the door — and Jack makes a funny about whether it says anything on Hurley’s arm about the door being jammed. HA HA HA, Jack Shephard. Actually, it only says, “Energy, Tax Cuts, Lift American Spirits,” smart guy. Jack kicks in the door, and they head up the stairs, to a very old school lighthouse mechanism with some sort of giant dial, a compass, a cauldron and a few mirrors. Yeah, but where is this Jacob guy? HUH? Hurley’s arm says that they have to turn the mirrors until the dial reaches 108 degrees, but instead of watching the dial, Jack stares into the mirrors which, way to do your job, dude. He catches glimpses of buildings in the mirror: first, the Temple where Jin and Sun were married, and then the church where Sawyer’s parents’ funeral was held. Jack freaks out, finally notices that their names are all on this compass, and turns the dial himself to 23 – Shephard. And there it is: his childhood home, reflected in the glass. Jack freaks out even further, having figured out that this Jacob character has been watching them, all of them, this whole time. Hurley, where is Jacob? Hurley doesn’t know … but Jack needs to know why Jacob was watching him, why his name is written down on this oversized whatchamadoodle, WHAT DOES JACOB WANT FROM JACK?!? And when Hurley can’t give Jack the answers that he’s looking for, Jack hauls off and destroys the mirrors with a telescope that he found nearby. Well. Hmm.

Tantrum over, Jack goes and sits on a cliff and broods. Hurley, unsure what to do now, is startled by Jacob who is all O HAI HUGO! Hurley is irritated that Jacob didn’t show up, and Jacob is like JACK NO CAN SEEZ ME. Hurley is exasperated with Jacob, and points out that maybe if Jacob had shown up, Jack wouldn’t have freaked out and broken his lighthouse. U CAN HAZ INK ON UR FOREHEAD. This pushes Hurley off the edge and he starts screaming at Jacob that the lighthouse! It is broken! And now the person who is supposed to come to the island! They won’t be able to find it! THEY CAN HAZ ANOTHER WAI. Hurley realizes that Jacob wanted Jack to see what was written on the wheel. IZ ONLY WAI JACK NOES HE HAZ A SPESHUL. JACK IZ HERE TO DO SUMTIN. HE HAZ TO FIND IT HISSELF. SOMETIMES U HAF TO LET PEOPLE STARE INTO THA OSHUN. Hurley is still irritated with the whole secrecy thing, but Jacob is like U CAN NO BEZ AT THA TEMPLE. SOMEONE BAD COMIN. Hurley wants to warn them! Let’s go! SORREE IZ TOO LATE. KBAI!

Let me begin by saying that at the beginning of this episode, I had one of those OH MY GOD HOW HAVE I MISSED THIS FOR SO LONG?!? moments. Hurley … Hurley is a prophet. Hurley doesn’t just see Jacob, he speaks for him. Hurley is Jacob’s prophet.

Prophets are intermediaries between gods and mortals, they serve as the gods’ mouthpieces, delivering messages from the other world. Prophets differ from soothsayers or fortune tellers in that they receive messages, prophecies directly from the godhead(s), rather than trying to divine it on their own. Prophets are all over the Old Testament, Christianity is filled with prophets who have received revelations from God, the Ancient Greeks relied on Oracles, Islam recognizes Mohammad along with the Old Testament figures and Jesus as prophets, and so on and so on. Interestingly, prophets often have difficult lives, living separately from society, often considered crazy. Poor Cassandra, for example, was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, only to reject his advances. Apollo, ticked off by this, cursed her by making no one believe her prophecies. Which drove her mad. John the Baptist made some questionable fashion choices, wore a camel suit and ate bugs. Isaiah claims that God ordered him to walk around naked and eat bugs. And poor Tiresias was turned into a hermaphrodite, for laffs. And let’s not forget the quote form The Brothers Karamazov that Benry reads out to Jack: “Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those they have slain.” It’s kind of a terrible gig, this prophecy thing.

And so, poor (Timeline A) Hurley, he has been told he was crazy by pretty much everyone close to him, spent time in an institution twice, is harassed by his dead friends, and now is the only person who can see this Jacob dude. He is the only one that can speak for Jacob. My question is how long has he been Jacob’s mouthpiece? As far as we know, before Hurley went to the Island, he did not have this ability to see dead people, it was only when he returned with the O6 that Charlie began to materialize before him, driving Hurley back into the Institution. I suppose an argument could be made that his invisible friend Dave was actually a ghost all along, and that Hurley always had this ability. Or … or, Hurley was never being visited by Charlie, Eko and Ana-Lucia, but rather Jacob in their forms.

I have to be honest, for the longest time, I leaned towards the former, that Hurley was actually visiting with his dead friends. It made Hurley’s pain of losing these people a little less sharp if he could spend time with them again. But, but. Then I remembered a conversation from “Something Nice Back Home,” where Jack visits Hurley at Santa Rosa after receiving word that Hurley hasn’t been taking his medicine:

JACK: Hey, Hurley.

HURLEY: Hey, Jack.

JACK: Why aren’t you taking your meds?

HURLEY: ‘Cause we’re dead… all of us. All the Oceanic Six–we’re all dead. We never got off that island.

JACK: Hurley… that is not true.

HURLEY: What’d you do today?

JACK: What did I do today? I, uh… [sighs] I woke up, took a shower. Uh, Kate and I fed the baby.

HURLEY: I thought you didn’t want anything to do with Aaron.

JACK: I changed my mind after the trial.

HURLEY: Living with Kate… taking care of Aaron… it all seems so perfect… just like heaven.

JACK: Just because I’m happy doesn’t mean that this isn’t real, Hurley.

HURLEY: I was happy, too, Jack… for a while, anyway. Then I saw Charlie. He likes to sit with me on the bench out on the front lawn. It’s pretty cool, actually.

JACK: Okay. (Sighs) So what did the two of you talk about?

HURLEY: Well, yesterday, he told me you were gonna be coming by. He wanted me to give you a message.

JACK: A message?

[Drawer scrapes]

HURLEY: He made me write it down so I wouldn’t mess it up. “You’re not supposed to raise him, Jack.” Does that make any sense?

So, like everyone, I was certain that Hurley was talking about Aaron, that Charlie was urging Jack to return to the Island, to leave behind this domestic life that he had created for himself with Kate. BUT. With the HUGE revelation that Jack has a son on Timeline B, I am 100% certain that this was a message from Jacob to Jack that he is not supposed to raise David. “Charlie” knew that Jack was going to come by for a visit, and “Charlie” “made [Hurley] write it down so [he] wouldn’t mess it up,” which is EXACTLY what Jacob makes Hurley do in this episode with the instructions to the lighthouse. Now, I concede that the “him” that Hurley tells Jack he’s not supposed to raise can also be Aaron, in this Timeline. But I suspect that Hurley, in this moment of insanity, is having a moment of perfect clarity: perhaps Hurley has seen the terrible future for them all, that they all end up back on the Island where they all die? And that Jack is not supposed to raise anyone, not Aaron on Timeline A, and not David on Timeline B, because Jack has obligations elsewhere.

ANDOHBYTHEWAY, this is the same episode where Jack has his appendix removed by Juliet on the Island (which he insisted on directing himself with the aid of mirrors — not unlike Christian wanting to remove his son’s appendix in Timeline B), and where Jack reads Alice in Wonderland to Aaron. AND. AND! It is the same episode where Claire sees Christian on the Island, and goes off to follow him. So.

Thus, the lighthouse. BEFORE I GET TO THAT: let me just say, CORRECTION! Or, rather, this is the part where I admit to being wrong. Last week, I hesitantly argued that the cave was a space used by both Jacob and Not!Locke, in part because of the scale, in part because it was the only time that we’ve seen the names up to that point, and I wanted it to be confirmation that, in fact, Jacob was involved in the survivors being on the Island. In light (PUN!) of the revelation of the lighthouse, it seems clearer that the cave might have, indeed, been a space primarily used by Not!Locke. That said, I am not writing it off as possibly being a communal area: this episode seems to suggest that while Jacob had The Foot, he also appears to use the Lighthouse and the temple, and we’ve seen that the Smoke monster also occupies the tunnels beneath the temple. Therefore, it’s not as though they each have one special place that they occupy — they appear to have spaces all over the Island that they occupy or use in some fashion. But, I will agree that as a cave, the space has, as noted in last week’s entry, more underworld connotations and therefore is probably most associated with Not!Locke. For what that’s worth.

As for the lighthouse, the design of this particular lighthouse is very similar to the design of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was built on the island of Pharos around 280 BC and stood until the 14th century when it was destroyed by earthquakes and partially sank into the harbor. Which is particularly interesting. Lighthouses are symbols of, shockingly, enlightenment and guidance, and they often represent positive change. Lighthouses are used to warn incoming ships of hazards, of hidden dangers, and as such, they represent a guide through the potentially dangerous depths of the subconscious, or through particularly difficult emotions. Additionally, lighthouses, like this one, are towers, which are axis symbols, a connection between the heavenly sphere and the earthly one. Much like ladders, towers represent the means through which mortals can ascend to a higher plane. Towers, as discussed some time ago in relation to the radio tower, and Jack’s insistence upon going there and calling the freighter, can also represent hubris, the fall of the ego, the Tower of Babel.

And so it is we have these two towers that Jack must visit, he must ascend. Notably, these towers are used for communication; the radio tower and this lighthouse are designed to communicate with some offshore personage, they are means to help find the Island. And even more interestingly, they are both methods of communication that have been broken. Jack (with Charlie’s help) fixes the radio tower had been jammed by Benry to prevent people from finding the Island, but then turns around and breaks the Lighthouse in a fit of pique. Curious. If fixing the radio tower leads to Jack leaving the Island, does breaking the Lighthouse lead to his staying?

The writers made the connection to Jack destroying his father’s casket and his actions in the Lighthouse as explicit as they possibly could in this episode by having Jack remind the audience that he found the caves while running around half-crazed in the jungle after his dead father. When he found the empty coffin, in his frustration at a lack of answers, in the damned emptiness of that box, Jack destroys the coffin with an axe. (And isn’t it interesting that Claire, upon receiving an answer, that Kate has taken the son that she’s been searching for, also plunges an axe into poor Justin, Not Jeremy’s chest? Lesson: don’t allow the Shephard children around axes.) In this episode, we have Jack yet again being led someplace by a white rabbit — this time Jacob through his prophet Hurley — only to arrive at a place that leaves him with more questions than answers. Where is Christian? Where is Jacob? Where are the answers already?

What is interesting is contrasting this journey of Jack’s upward, into this tower to only feel as though he hasn’t been given the answers he has been searching for, to Sawyer’s descent into the cave, where he is given all the answers that he needs. Not!Locke, unlike Jacob, is forthcoming: hey! Lookee here! This guy brought you here and has been messing with your entire life! Jacob, in contrast, does not offer any easy answers, but it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t give hard ones. And those answers? Might lie in those mirrors that you just destroyed, Jack.

The sheer number of mirrors in this episode is staggering. The episode begins with Jack staring into his reflection and that appendectomy scar in the bathroom mirror, cuts to himself staring at his reflection in the pond at the Temple, Jack finds pictures of himself and David tucked into his son’s mirror, and then there are those lighthouse mirrors that he up and destroys. Mirrors obviously represent the dual timelines, the parallel worlds reflecting each other. Mirrors are loaded symbols, though, and reflect (PUN!) many different meanings. Mirrors are solar symbols, and represent, like lighthouses, enlightenment, a divine intellect and manifestation. Similarly, so do compasses. Mirrors and compasses both represent order, reason, design. This, in contrast to the caves, and their frenetic chaos and disorder. But! Back to those mirrors. In stories, mirrors are often magical, operating as portals to another world, or used for diving purposes. Perhaps in this instance it is both? Jacob perhaps used the mirrors in the lighthouse to glimpse into the candidates’ lives, into their worlds as a means to choose them? To see if they had “what it takes?”

The Buddhists and Hindus take the mirror as enlightenment meaning even further, however, suggesting that just as the reflected image isn’t reality itself, but merely a reflection, so the phenomenal world is not actually reality — it is all an illusion. Will Jack, as he sits there staring into the ocean, realize that the life (lives) he left behind were merely an illusion? That it’s not reality? That he, himself, his image in those mirrors, who he thinks he is, is an illusion, a flat, two-dimensional projection of something much greater?

Interestingly, and worth noting: the mirrors show the place where Jacob touched the Kwons — at the temple where they were married, and where Jacob touched Sawyer — at the church where Sawyer’s parents’ funeral was held, but NOT where he touched Jack. The only time we’ve seen Jack and Jacob interact, they were in the hospital following Jack’s surgery where he had to stop and count to five — on his father’s orders. So, why does Jack see his father’s home in the mirrors?

I’m not entirely sure, and I’m not going to go so far as to suggest that it is because Christian is the actual “Shephard” that is noted on the dial at the 23rd spot. But, I do believe that has everything to do with Christian, Jack’s daddy issues, and our good friend, the Oedipal cycle. Jack is who he is in both timelines because he simultaneously rejects becoming his father, while understanding somewhere inside of him that he must, in fact, be him. Just as Oedipus fights furiously to avoid fulfilling the prophecy that he will murder his father, take his place and marry his mother, and yet does all of these things in the end, so does Jack rage against his father’s choices, his father’s life and the nagging feeling that he will become just like him. In both timelines, Jack becomes a neurosurgeon just like his father, and in Timeline A, Jack appears to be going down the same path as his father, adopting his controlled substance problems, and his inability to maintain healthy domestic relationships. Interestingly, in Timeline B, Jack appears to reject the more tragic aspects of Christian’s life, notably his addiction issues and his inability to be a good father. However, that mirror life, it’s not real, it’s an illusion. “You’re not supposed to raise him, Jack.”

As noted earlier, the parallel between Christian’s coffin and the lighthouse and Jack’s violent reaction to both is highlighted within the episode itself. Jack destroys the coffin:Jack destroys the Lighthouse. And perhaps we are meant to take that parallel further and draw the line from Christian to Jacob. I’m not suggesting that Christian is Jacob or anything, but that rather, just as the Godhead is often regarded as a father figure, perhaps so is Jacob? And that just as Jack tried to reject his father’s path before ultimately becoming just like him, in this moment, Jack is struggling against the notion, the realization that when he went up into that Lighthouse, he did see Jacob, he did find him — reflected back at himself in those mirrors.

And remember what Jack does after he destroys the coffin: he chooses to move into the caves, and gives up waiting around on the beach for someone to come save them. Will Jack’s cathartic destruction of the Lighthouse mirrors serve a similar purpose? Will it help clarify the choices that the survivors have before them: beach or caves? Try to leave or stay? Not!Locke or Jacob/Jack? And will the decisions break down now as they did then? With Sawyer, Sayid, Kate and Claire (until she is convinced by Charlie to move to the caves with disastrous and temporary results) joining Not!Locke and looking to leave the Island, and Hurley and Jin and Sun choosing to stay with Jacob/Jack there on the Island? And choose to try to protect it? Is this the war that Widmore told Locke was coming? EEP!

Or will everyone up and die and the whole question be moot? OH WHO CAN SAY.

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